April 14, 2023

Iyar 5783

Welcome to Weird Jewish Digest! Rosh Chodesh Iyar is still a week away, but the shabbat announcement of it is tomorrow, which is why you're seeing this email in your inbox today.

Jewish Calendar

Before the next issue of Weird Jewish Digest goes out, we'll go through the following parts of the weekly torah reading cycle:

• 4/15 Shmini / שְּׁמִינִי; newsletters from that week in 5781 and 5782

• 4/22 Tazria-Metzora / תַזְרִיעַ־מְּצֹרָע; newsletters from that week in 5781; for 5782, we had separate tazria and metzorah

• 4/29 Achrei Mot-Kedoshim / אַחֲרֵי מוֹת־קְדשִׁים; newsletters from that week in 5781 and 5782

• 5/6 Emor / אֱמוֹר; newsletters from that week in 5781 and 5782

• 5/13 Behar-Bechukotai / בְּהַר־בְּחֻקֹּתַי; newsletters from that week in 5781; in 5782 we had separate behar and bechukotai

Pesach

I hope you all had a lovely passover! Here's a few links I bet you all will still enjoy in the off-season: passover and book bannings, soviet "red passover", and a 1729 colored illustration of matzo baking.

Now that we're through with pesach, I can truly enjoy the NYT Style Magazine feature on the bakers reinvigorating jewish baking traditions.

Counting the Omer

• The Torah Studio and Temple Israel of Hollywood are offering weekly omer counting events to usher in the shabbat.

• Pushcart Judaica's omer counter is a gorgeous spiral shape and comes with a ritual guide to help you with the process.

• For instagram-based approaches, check out dog ba'omer and Jayne Manpour's queerjewishpractice.

Books and Language

There's a book coming this September called The Pomegranate Gate. It's set during the spanish inquisition and inspired by jewish folklore. Click through to read an excerpt!

Asaf Elia-Shalev wrote a fascinating piece about Genazym, a rare jewish book auction house that mostly sells to Orthodox buyers for sometimes-ridiculous prices.

Illustrating Shabes: A Listicle, complete with some suggested tools for looking up illustrated yiddish books.

Flora Cassen writes in PSYCHE about the political choices involved in translation, referring back to a sixteenth century text about the americas translated into hebrew from spanish by a separdic jew.

If you're a writer of short stories, check out HeyAlma's inaugural fiction contest before it closes on May 1st!

teshuvot and tefilot

Since the last time I've sent out this newsletter, we've seen the release of the SVARA Trans Halakha Project's first set of documents: their teshuva writing collective (PDFs link)'s publications and tefilat trans, a book of blessings for trans people and our lives. JTA published a lovely article focusing on the teshuva writing collective.

Unrelated to SVARA's projects, Rabbi Kerry Chaplin and Kalil Cohen have been running a trans jewish blessings liturgical project on instagram called trans(formations).

Yeshivat Maharat, a feminist open orthodox yeshiva, has put out a teshuva regarding gay women, which comes to the conclusion that lesbians living within orthodox norms are not behaving pruriently. A few disclaimers: I have not read the entire document; i am sure some of the responses express a variety of viewpoints that many (myself included) would consider offensive; but also, I am not orthodox and do not live in an orthodox context, and in that context this is progress.

Miscellaneous

I was baffled but pleased to see this article about torah teacher aesthetics in Vogue.

What's a bird mean in a dream?

Shuli Elisheva told us about her grandfather in a heartwarming thread of trans acceptance.

Trans Jewish comic book writer Rachel Pollack passed away recently, as did cis jewish food writer Mimi Sheraton. May their memories be for a blessing.

I love these fascinating queer mikveh inspired sculptures from Nicki Green.

Reboot has a new podcast called Kitchen Radio about MENA Jewish food traditions, and there's a companion cookbook too!

Classes!

• Judaism Unbound's three week UnYeshiva courses this go-round feature topics like interfaith families, sex, and ecology.

• The Torah Studio's classes are starting again as well, and I'm excited to join in on learning avot for goths and eicha for emos.

• Boston Workers' Circle has a six-session hybrid course titled Antisemitism: Reclaiming the Conversation

Events!

4/16 UJPO/MWS Secular, justice-oriented "Third Seyder"

4/19 MOHAI History Café: Seattle’s Sephardic Jews in the 20th Century

4/19 Honoring Resistance: 80 Years of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, with Synagogues Rising

4/20 Undzer Biblyotek: Montreal’s Jewish Public Library at the Center of Yiddish Culture talk

4/20 David Myers and Nomi Stolzenberg, “American Shtetl: The Case of Kirya Joel, New York”

4/20-22 rosh chodesh iyar

4/23 Mandalorthodox: jewish history and modern practice in The Mandalorian (panel)

5/2 Progressive Jewish Culture in Argentina and South America: An Ethno-Political Identity (1937-1991) lecture

5/4 East European Jews between Renaissance and Futurelessness

Jewish Pet of the Month

If you have a pet you'd like to have featured as Jewish Pet of the Month, let me know! Reply to this email with a picture and the pet's name and I'll pencil them in for a future issue.

<3

Meli